Tuesday, November 24, 2015

The One Where Mindy Is Still Trying To Get The Hang Of The Language

WE LOVE MISSIONARY MONDAY!!! Here is her email for this week. Hope you enjoy :)

"God guides His church through racism..." MTC Week 6

Leih Hou!

I don't actually remember what week I'm on here in the MTC, I'll be honest when I say that I lost track after week four. Every time someone asks I have to ask my companion or I just say, "A really long time...".

This week was a week of learning for me. Learning from mistakes especially! On Wednesday, Sister McNeely and I were teaching a lesson to some other Sisters in our district (Sister Leonard and Sister Shiffert). We were teaching the restoration. I was trying to talk about how God guides His church still today through revelation to His living prophets. The cantonese word for revelation and the cantonese word for racism are pretty darn similar and I accidentally mixed them up. I'm pretty sure my teacher almost fell over he was laughing so hard. I only blushed a little bit... LOL! It's good to make mistakes though, there's a general authority that says, "You only have about 25,000 mistakes to make in a language, make them in the MTC". I'm pretty sure I've already said more than that but I'm glad to know that the mistakes and the mess coming out of my mouth won't last forever. I've had a couple Sisters speaking cantonese bear testimony that they were living prophets and another group said that God loves us so much, he gave us pigs (which in cantonese is one tone off from being the word, Lord).

We had a really fantastic devotional on Tuesday but Elder Kim B. Clark, who's a member of the seventy. He said there were four things that missionaries (and everyone!) needs to do to be successful. 1. Be willingly obedient. 2. Work HARD 3. Have the spirit with you. 4. LOVE the people. This reminded me of the thing that Bishop Kib said at my setting apart. He said to remember FOWL. Faith, Obedience, Work and Love. My district talked a lot about how we need to see other people as God sees them. We need to love others as God loves them. In 3 Nephi 18:24-25, there's a line that reads "...I am the light that thou should hold up...". People should be able to recognize that we bear Christ's name on our hearts by our actions and by His light shining through our eyes and our faces! Don't be afraid to be obnoxiously enthusiastic about your love of your Heavenly Father and the love of your Savior. We have every right to be enthusiastic about our faith because we get to know a happiness and a love that most people have never felt in their lives! We are so blessed to have this gospel, so bear Christs' name with pride!

And on the note of pride, I've been studying Humility this week as my Christ-like attribute, LOL! My favorite scripture in the entire Book of Mormon is Alma 26:12. Alma 26 is what we like to call, Ammon's missonary homecoming address. I love verse 12 because it talks about how without God we are nothing. He gave us everything we have. "I will not boast of myself, but I will of my God,for in His strength I can do all things..." Through God, not only do we have everything we have but we can also achieve anything we need! Humility leads to a better understanding of how much you need your Savior and it helps you understand and appreciate the need for the Atonement and repentance that much more!

I finally got to see that new(ish) Joseph Smith movie that has been out for a couple of years. I've been wanting to see it for years but I haven't really had the opportunity to see it. If you have the opportunity to see it, DO IT! It was such a powerful movie. I am so grateful for Joseph Smith and for His undying faith and love for our Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for the faith of the early saints. I'm so proud of them for staying true to what is right, in the face of so much hurt and so much persecution. I know that this church is true because even while facing those awful events, the knowledge of the Atonement and the love of our Savior and our Heavenly Father kept those saints strong. Their burdens were made lighter on their shoulders and they were able to enjoy greater happiness because of their hardships. God continues to strengthen His people and bear their burdens, just as much now as He did then. He has promised us MULTIPLE times in the scriptures that all we need to do to is have a little faith, a little humility and ASK Him for help and He will bless us.

God gives me strength to make it through some crappy days here in the MTC, and He'll give you the strength to endure some crappy days too. My challenge this week is for you to find a copy of the book "Our Search for Happiness" by M. Russell Ballard and read it. It's fantastic. I hope you all have an INCREDIBLE Thanksgiving this week. I love you all and I can feel your prayers. Thank you so much for all your love and support!

About Me

My name is Mindy Adams. I am 20. I come from a family of twelve, so yes, there are ten kids. I have five sisters, four brothers, two sisters-in-law, one brother-in-law, five nieces, four nephews and a whole bunch more to come. I love my huge family. I am LDS and I love it. I hope to someday be an athletic trainer but dreams do change so who knows where the Lord will take me. I am currently serving an LDS mission in Hong Kong China from October 2015 until May 2017.